Negative Characteristics of Marketing
Marketing is misunderstood by most laymen, and this lack of understanding is at the heart of most negative perspectives on marketing. People who do not understand marketing bristle at the fundamental aim of marketing -- that is, to sell a product or service. The history of marketing includes some questionable practices in the pursuit of profit. True skeptics believe that in order to get consumers to purchase, marketers must coerce them in some way, be unethical, and generally use so-called huckster tactics to get them to buy goods and services.
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Subliminal Messages
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During the 1950s, Americans were obsessed with the notion that subliminal messages were included in advertising to make viewers want to purchase more. Their fears were not baseless. Market researcher James Vicary studied the effects of a subliminal message placed in a reel at a movie theater that entreated moviegoers to buy more popcorn and coke. According to his findings, sales of popcorn and coke significantly increased as a result. News of that research spread quickly, fueling fears of unethical marketing practices. The United States banned the use of subliminal messages in advertising in 1974, but people continued to search for hidden messages in the fluid lines of ice cubes or the streaming condensation on a frosty glass of beer in print advertisements.
Higher Prices
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A negative characteristic associated with marketing is that it increases prices on goods and services. To a point, there is some truth in that perspective. The cost of marketing a product does get factored into the cost of a product. However, all other expenses to make the product also are factored in, including the cost of raw materials, manpower, electricity to light the building, rent on the building and a profit margin. To single out marketing from a long list of pass-along costs shows the layman's lack of knowledge about the costs of doing business generally. Marketers do try to get the highest price the market will bear for their product. However, there are checks and balances, most prominently the marketplace itself. You can't charge $800 for a loaf of bread and expect any takers. Even $8 bread would have a tiny consumer franchise.
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Bait and Switch
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Marketers have a bad reputation for engaging in the practice known as bait and switch. Through advertising, a store might show great products at fantastic prices. Once a customer comes into the store, suddenly the advertised products don't exist or are already sold out and the store tries to switch that product with a substitute. Bait and switch is a practice frowned upon by the U.S. Bureau of Consumer Protection and by consumers who feel duped by the practice.
Age Glorification
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Marketers have been taking it on the chin about their use of young people to promote sales. With the country aging at a fast clip, youth glorification has become a negative for marketing. Along with flaunting youth, marketers also glorify stick-thin, usually underage models at a time when eating disorders, diabetes and hypertension are at all-time highs among the consumer population.
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